New Beagle Owner!

M

moetrout

Guest
Hello,

I just got a beagle before Christmas, something I've wanted for a long time. My uncle has always run beagles for rabbits and hunting behind them is super fun. I finally got one of my own. Although I probably went about it all the wrong way. He has no papers, but I was told his mother and father were good hunting dogs. My dog's name is Copper. Mainly because I started calling him "copper dog" because I was told he was a "copper nose beagle". This variety is a tri-color but instead of black/brown/white he is chocolate/brown/white has pink lips and paws, and copper nose instead of black. This little guy is smart and only 5 months old. I have him in obedience class now, but I have my 12 yo daughter doing all of the training. Mainly because he seems to mind me the best and her the least. So far that has proved to be a good decision as their relationship has improved a lot since starting this. So far Copper rings a bell to go outside, sits, down, come, whistle recall, tone recall (with the tritronics collar), shake, roll over, and in one afternoon while I was out of the office sick I taught him to play dead. My daughter wants to do agility courses with him so whe can show him in her 4H fair this fall. I found this site looking for better dog tricks. I think he needs good stimulation like this. He seems to be better behaved when he is not bored. I hope to hunt this dog as well and think all of this training will onlly help with that. I am looking forward to reading about all the cool tricks you all do with your dogs!
 

Attachments

M

moetrout

Guest
Oops! A few too many pictures got attached, does anyone know how to fix that?
 

Dlilly

Honored Member
Welcome! Wow, he's sure a handsome Beagle!

You should check out the trick area of this fourm, you will get a ton of trick ideas in there. =)
 
M

moetrout

Guest
Welcome!! Copper is adorable!! Tell your daughter to try teaching Copper leg weave, back up and beg! :D
Leg weave is coming soon, although I don't know if she is big enough for this trick to work. Beg we are working on right now and back up is becoming necessary. Last week in dog class I showed off roll over. The instructor saw me working with him and asked me to show it off in front of everyone. He did well, although I had to give both verbal and hand signal. If he knows already that we are going to ask for it (say we just did the trick) then usually I can just tilt my head to the side and he will do it, just not in class that day. Today I'm going to do bang dead with him. A little warm up this morning before we go and he should be very entertaining. The tricks are not necessary for class, but I've got my own goal of one a week. Call me shallow, but it's fun having the star of the class.
 

jackienmutts

Honored Member
Hi and welcome. Copper is just adorable. Did have a question for you? What kind of training are you doing? I noticed you do use an e-collar (your tri-tronics collar, you said he had a recall when using his collar). Do you use positive reinforcement for training? Or? We all train using positive reinforcement on this forum, just hoping you do too.
 
M

moetrout

Guest
I would say I "mainly" us positive re-enforcement training. The focus currently with the ecollar is using the tone function (makes the dogs collar beep) to get him to come to me. I have only used the shock setting once when he found the back half of a rotted opossum and ran off to eat it. That incident called for it. I tried to get him to drop it with various commands and even offering treats. If he had ate that a vet visit would have followed. Yesterday I was successful in using the "leave it" command to get him to drop a coon turd. Some may think I am cruel to use it, but I would bet any that do think that do not have a stubborn beagle. It's a last resort punishment tool. I watched the tritronics video on how to use it for training and I do not feel it is necessary to use the "stimulation" (as trintronics calls it) to train normal things. By the way, I have put it on myself. If you have never felt it then let me reassure you that it is only painful at the highest levels. Levels 1 and 2 are a "tickle", level 3 starts to get painful and level 4 does hurt a bit. Don't knock these collars until you have personal experience with them, otherwise you really don't know what you are talking about( not that you were). For me it's just one more tool in my training toolbox, just like treats and clickers, they have a place and purpose too.
 

Mr-Remington

Experienced Member
Welcome to DTA! I'm glad you don't use the ecollar for everything, but to each their own. I won't judge you. Copper is beautiful, and I hope you enjoy the forum!
 

LeviTheOutlaw

Well-Known Member
He's really adorable!!! One of my dogs (not the 3 I have now) ate a dead bird and ended up with dysentery. She is fine but it was very scary. We had to take her to the emergency vet and she was so sick, not to mention the vet bill was enormous. I can understand your fear of Copper eating a rotten possum, hopefully his "leave it" command will improve and you won't need the collar.
 
M

moetrout

Guest
Thanks for not being judgemental. The best tool in my training it TREATS! Beagles are stubborn, but another trait is they are chow hounds and like to eat (just about anything at that)!

Levi, I can really appreciate your story. This is exactly the kind of thing I was trying to avoid by using the shock setting. I suspect the collar paid for itself with that one incident by avoiding the vet visit.
 

Dogster

Honored Member
Welcome!!!!:) Copper is adorable!!!! What a gorgeous dog!!!!:love:
I'm glad your daughter took an interest in training Copper, she'll soon find out (if she hasn't already) that dog training is awesome, and super fun!!!:D

I'm glad you don't use the e collar a lot. My advice would be to teach Copper to have a bombproof 'leave it' (he is a hound, and hounds are known for their noses;)) to avoid using the shock collar on him. It may take a while (it's not easy! Believe me) be patient, but the end result is one to be proud of.:)

Enjoy the site!!!:):)
 
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